On the Back Porch of America

...h false reality show drama and treated subjects with respect. Four more episodes will come out later this year. http://vimeo.com/91655829 Small Medium Large also did a piece on Root Simple pal Doug Tiano. Doug’s been making a whole army of soft sculpture copies of himself. Watch if you dare as Doug reveals his own underbelly shadow! Small Medium Large has a bunch of other great videos on their website. Who needs Netflix?...

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From the Archives: Loquat Leather

...nd repeating an old blog post, Mrs. H neglected to mention my controversial 2012 loquat leather experiment and recipe. You’ve still got to de-seed the damn things but at least there’s no need to skin them. Plus it makes use of booze. I’ll admit it’s not a thrilling fruit leather but it’s not too bad. Mrs. Homegrown chimes in: My philosophy is simply that if one is going to go through the trouble of making fruit leather, preserves, pies etc., one s...

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Kintsugi: Creating Art out of Loss

...od as new, as if it had never broken, but acknowledging that breakage, and making something new and beautiful out of disaster, via the practice of mindfulness. Perhaps we can learn something from this. Please do check out the video–it’s short and beautiful. In it, a young craftsman explains the rising popularity of this 400 year-old art form in Japan, says, ” …people are realizing that chasing after money and new stuff and new technology will not...

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C-Realm Podcast on the Age of Limits

...and I neglected to mention during the interview is that we think there should be a conference here in Los Angeles that would gather together all the amazing people in our region who are making a difference in this world. We’re thinking hands on workshops, talks etc. Let us know if you have any ideas about how to make this happen....

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Dovetails by Hand

...e woodworking I do combines machines and hand tools. I have kind of a early 20th century shop–machines for the rough stuff: table saw, band saw, jointer and planer and hand planes and hand saws for the details. I took an excellent hand cut dovetail class taught by Chris Gochnour a few years ago where we learned how to make dovetails with a hand saw, chisel and fret saw. I’ve been practicing the skill ever since. While my dovetails aren’t perfect I...

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